Phil Morin

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, Assemblyman Eric Munoz, Sen. Thomas Kean, and U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson soak in one of the speeches.

WESTFIELD - The word going into that first round of voting at the Union County Republican Convention on Saturday was that former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield and Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks would require a second showdown.

"This is going to a runoff between the top two candidates," said John DeSimone, commissioner for the county Board of Elections as he waded into the crowd of delegates. And that’s exactly how it went down at Westfield High School, where Hatfield eventually prevailed over Marks with 60 % of the vote in the Union County GOP’s pre-primary battle for the line in the 7th District Congressional race.

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WESTFIELD - State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio beat businesswoman AnneState Sen. Joseph Pennacchio Evans Estabrook at the Union County GOP Convention here today, winning 191 votes to Estabrook's 151 votes in their Republican pre-primary contest for U.S. Senate.

"They think you have to be advertising, but you have to be out there and that's what we've done," said Pennacchio. "We knocked on doors, we called elected officials. We walked Clark, Summit and Cranford."

Pennacchio and Estabrook went head to head in a second round of machine voting after neither candidate earned the requisite 50% plus 1 in the first round, while eliminating economics Prof. Murray Sabrin.

First round voting went as follows: Pennacchio gained 178 votes, Estabrook 170 votes, and Sabrin, 17 votes.

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Former Garfield Councilwoman Patricia Quattrocchi could challenge Phil Morin for Union County GOP ChairmanFour-time Union County Freeholder candidate Patricia Quattrocchi said that she likes her county chairman, Phil Morin. But the party desperately needs a jolt, and she thinks she may be the one who can provide it.

“We need some electricity here in Union County,” said Quattrocchi, who is considering running for Morin’s post in June. Currently, she’s assistant vice-chair of the party.

Next month marks 10 years since the last Republican left the Union County Freeholder Board, and local Republicans find themselves in a situation similar to their Bergen County brethren. They can remember when they dominated in the not-so-distant past, but that control has since given way to a Democratic machine controlled by powerful Democratic boss Charlotte DeFilippo and, amongst some local Republicans, a sense of hopelessness. more >

Linda Stender thought she'd face Mike Ferguson in 2008; now she's seeking a rare open seatU.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson today became the second New Jersey Republican Congressman in as many weeks to announce he would not run for another term.

Amid the smoldering remains of the Bush era, Iraq, the aftershock of Ferguson's life and death struggle in the last election, and news this month that he missed a vote on flood relief, Democrats were convinced they could hear him crying uncle.

Not so, said the 37-year old Ferguson, whose statement today indicated that he wants to spend more time with his growing family.

"Do you have kids?" wondered Somerset County Republican Party Chairman Dale Florio, in deference to the congressman's public rationale for departure.

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Martin Marks, the Mayor of Scotch Plains, is interested in Mike Ferguson's congressional seatUnion County may not be a bulwark of Republican Party politics, but a chunk of it fits into a Republican-leaning Congressional district, and it is the home of at least two Republican politicians alert to a coming vacancy.

With the announcement earlier today that state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., would not pursue retiring U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson's seat, Assemblyman Jon Bramnick emerged as Union County's frontrunner.

But he definitely has company.

Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks says he once told Ferguson that if the congressman ever moved up or retired, Marks would be interested in running for his 7th district Congressional seat.

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Union County Republican Chairman Philip Morin says he won’t seek the House seat being vacated by Rep. Mike Ferguson.

"I don't see myself as a candidate for Congress in 2008," said Morin, a former Cranford mayor who is a strong backer of GOP U.S. Senate candidate Anne Evans Estabrook.

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Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin and U.S. Senate candidate Anne Evans Estabrook stand in the middle of a controversial real estate development deal in Cranford that has become an issue in the race for Township Committee.

The County Chairman can’t give money to help at least one GOP candidate, because if he did, the candidate says he believes the money would leave him open to an attack of being a sell out -- and crush him politically.

That’s because Morin also serves as the attorney for Woodmont Properties, LLC. Woodmont wants to alter the zoning for two properties on Birchwood Avenue from low density office to residential, so that the Parsippany developer can buy nearly 16 acres from Elberon Development, which is owned by Estabrook, a Republican who wants to run against Frank R. Lautenberg next year.

Morin serves on Estabrook’s campaign exploratory committee – his early support surprised some Republicans because Union County Assemblyman Jon Bramnick is mulling a U.S. Senate bid -- but the fledgling candidate said Morin’s presence as the applicant’s attorney does not constitute a conflict.

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Republican Party officials have missed an opportunity to challenge an embattled State Senator in the 22nd district. And on Wednesday, two days after the primary filing deadline for Legislative races, the GOP leadership collectively offered no stirring endorsement of a candidate who hopes to ward off an Assemblywoman intent on upsetting a Republican Congressman next year.

"There was a mixup with the petitions and we didn’t get the requisite number of signatures," Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin said of his party’s failure to field a State Senate contestant. "But we intend to write-in a candidate in the June primary."

The state Division of Elections initially listed Bryan DesRochers as a candidate for State Senate -- and a challenger to incumbent Sen. Nicholas Scutari, whom the Democrats nominated in 2003 when Joseph Suliga abruptly ended his re-election bid.

Scutari is one of three legislators served with a subpoena connected to a federal probe of legislators receiving an alleged personal benefit from state budget items. Scutari’s wife works for a non-profit organization that received state funds.

Elections officials admitted they made a mistake when they listed DesRochers as a candidate in the Senate race.

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